Hartford's Turnout: Beyond Disgraceful

HELEN UBINAS

There's no problem with teen pregnancy in Hartford. Crime, either. Homelessness, we've got that covered. Plenty of money for schools, kids and families in need. Oh, and we can all read, too.

That's the only explanation I will accept for Hartford voters' not showing up at the polls. And since we know we're still in trouble on all of those fronts, there's just no explaining it.

FOR THE RECORD - Correction published 11/11/04.The number and percentage of voters aged 18 to 29 who cast ballots increased between 2000 and last week's presidential election. However, the proportion of young voters in the total electorate remained at 17 percent. A column on Page B1 Sunday incorrectly reported that the turnout was 17 percent this year and was unchanged from 2000.

While towns and cities across the country reported record numbers of voter turnout, Hartford captured the bottom spot in Connecticut. In fact, fewer residents voted in this presidential election than in 2000 -- 58 percent compared with 61 percent. And that's after four years of seeing what George W. Bush can do to the country.

Larry Perosino, of the secretary of the state's office, agreed that the turnout was disappointing. I called him to whine Friday, and hope that I was reading the numbers wrong.

Fact is, there was a lot to be disappointed about during Tuesday's presidential election -- and not just for the folks who were duped by garbage exit polls that declared Kerry the winner.

There was the ``Vote or Die'' youth vote. I don't know about you, but I'm waiting for the obit, because the expected increase in voters aged 18 to 29 never materialized. In fact, the 17 percent turnout was the same as in the 2000 election.

In some states, voters were stuck in line for hours. Ohio courts ripped into county boards of election for failing to plan for the huge voter turnout; people waited for up to 11 hours.

No such holdup in Hartford. No, overall Hartford voters kept the lines moving by just not getting in line.

And really, it shouldn't come as a surprise. Each election, Hartford seems to outdo itself. Last year, for the first strong-mayor election in generations, turnout was 25 percent, down from 31 percent two years before that.

So, why bother getting all heated about it, you ask?

Well, because Hartford's apathy was amplified by what I witnessed in Florida on Election Day -- throngs of people who were not just showing up to cast their vote for a candidate, but to ensure that the disenfranchisement of 57,000 voters in 2000 would not be repeated.

In Duval County, where it was estimated that one of five black votes was tossed during the last presidential election, about 200 people were still waiting to vote at the County Supervisor of Elections office when the polls closed.

Melita Jones was there with her 5- and 3-year-old boys. ``Are you kidding?'' she said when I told her that she was brave for bringing along the kids to what would surely be a long night. ``They need to see this.''

Folks like Jones didn't just say they wouldn't be silenced again. They made sure they weren't. Nearly 80 percent of voters turned out in some counties. In Duval, estimates were at upward of 70 percent.

No such passion here. In an attempt, I think, to make me feel better, Perosino reminded me that there was some good news. The state saw a record number of new registered voters, about 275,000.

The ones in Hartford just decided to sit this one out.

Of course, apologists offer a slew of reasons for Hartford's low voter turnout: economics, folks too busy trying to put food on the table to do their civic duty, language barriers. And those are real issues -- ones that folks in Jacksonville and Cleveland have. Yet they crowded the polls, and rushed to the lines from second jobs, community college classes, with skateboards and walkers and a desire to be heard.

Usually, this is the part where I introduce you to the people who decided for one reason or another not to vote, to let you hear their sorry excuses for once again being no-shows. Too busy, too tired. Too jaded.

But why should I give them a chance to be heard? They had their chance to be heard on Tuesday -- and they didn't take it.

Helen Ubinas' column appears Thursdays and Sundays. She can be reached at Ubinas@courant.com.